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"Sleeper" by AudiowebNow I wonder if Louise Wener's lot will return the favour and release a track called "Audioweb"? B-side "The Other Side Of Love" is in a similar style to the a-side: a driving piece of guitar-drenched indie-dance with warmly-sung and accomplished vocals. Extra tracks on the CD are two remixes of "Sleeper", both of which bring the dance side of the song to the fore, one in a disco, hi-nrg way; the other accentuating the bass to create a mellow dub. Rating: 10/10 The Rest"C'Mon Kids" by The Boo RadleysFirst of the b-sides "Spion Kop" is a mellow, tuneful romp through Oasis territory (with bongo drums). Next up is "To Beautiful", an old-school Boos track with guitars dripping effects and harmonising vocals. Closing the first CD is "Bullfrog Green (Ultra Living Remix) an inoffensive take on a track I'm unfamiliar with (I don't have the Boos latest LP yet...) As both CDs of this release were only 99p each, I got the second one too. The extra tracks here are "Nothing To Do But Scare Myself", a My Bloody Valentine style song with very distorted guitars and vocals that transforms into a cartoon pop song then back into murky territory again. The Boo Radleys have obviously found a time machine and set it for 1989... The Ultramarine Remix of "From The Bench At Belvidere" is adequate, but unlikely to be played more than a couple of times. The Greg Hunter remixed "Fortunate Sons" is much better: the sound of a slow industrial Yello or a more malevolent Kraftwerk. Rating: 9/10 "Little Arithmetics" by dEUS"My Wife Jan" could be an out-take from "Nevermind" with its thrashing guitars, great tune and yelled, ambiguous lyrics. "The Tugboat" is a weird ballad with buzzing, sickly guitar droning in the background evoking an air of threat and menace, whilst the last track on the CD is "Everything Is The Same (Except No One Believes Me)" and features the bizarre sound of someone doing increasingly frantic cat impressions (honest) whilst a piano and guitar back gently sung vocals. As strange a track as any dEUS have ever released. Rating: 8/10 "6 Underground" by Sneaker PimpsThe "main" release here is the Nellee Hooper mix of "6 Underground", and it is a mid-tempo, trip-hoppy soundscape with swathes of guitar, vibro-noises and other effects, all woven together with female vocals that sound a cross between Siouxsie Sioux and the singer from Moloko. Slightly menacing; not brilliant, but a creeping grower. "Can't Find My Way Home", one of the new tracks, starts off with a canine-worrying high-pitched electronic squeal, then adds jungle-ish drum beats to a weird, alien track. Pretty original, this is actually quite unsettling if played at high volume. "Precious" features some extremely Banshees-like vocals and deep, very Gothic backing sounds. As I said, the remaining 9 tracks are all remixes of "6 Underground" - buy them yourself if you're desperate to find out what they're like...as you can imagine, some are better than others. Rating: 8/10 |